Charlie Hebdo stirs new controversy with migrant cartoons

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is courting controversy again by running cartoons deriding the response of predominantly Christian European countries to a flood of migrants from mainly Muslim war zones such as Syria and Iraq.

The magazine became a symbol of freedom of speech after it was the target of a deadly attack by Islamist militants in January for publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

The latest edition has attracted renewed attention -- and criticism on social media.

One drawing plays on the harrowing photo of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian child whose body washed up on a beach in Turkey after a failed attempt to cross by boat with his family to Greece. The photograph galvanized world attention on the refugee crisis.

The Charlie Hebdo cartoon shows a toddler in shorts and a T-shirt face-down on the shoreline beside an advertising billboard that offers two children's meal menus for the price of one.

"So close to making it..." the caption says.

Click through to see more past Charlie Hebdo issues:

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Charlie Hebdo cartoons

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Charlie Hebdo stirs new controversy with migrant cartoons

"100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter" (Charlie Hebdo)

"The Quran is s**t, it does not stop bullets." (Charlie Hebdo)

If Muhammad returned...

"I am the prophet, fool!"

"You unfaithful infidel"

(Charlie Hebdo)

"Must not mock" (Charlie Hebdo)

"Love is stronger than hate" (Charlie Hebdo)

"Muhammad is underwhelmed with the fundamentalists"

"It's hard to be loved by idiots"

(Charlie Hebdo)

"Must veil Charlie Hebdo" (Charlie Hebdo)

"Without hands" (Charlie Hebdo)

"Yes, wear the burqa ... on the inside" (Charlie Hebdo)

Meilleurs vœux, au fait. http://t.co/a2JOhqJZJM

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Another cartoon, also penned by a cartoonist who survived the militant attack on Charlie Hebdo's Paris premises in January, runs under a caption saying: "Proof that Europe is Christian".

It shows a Jesus-like figure walking on the water while another, smaller figure wearing shorts is up-ended in the water, with the former saying "Christians walk on water" and the latter "Muslim children sink".

Newspapers from Asia to North America noted the cartoons.

"Aylan Kurdi's death mocked by Charlie Hebdo", read a headline in the Toronto Sun. "Charlie Hebdo criticized for dead Syrian toddler's cartoon," said the Times of India.